Playing the Revolt: The Cultural Valorization of Russian Rap and Covert Change in Russian Society of the 2010s

Slavic Literatures (ранее - Russian Literature). 2020. Vol. 118. P. 79–105.

Kukulin I.

In the mid-2010s, rap suddenly (for many external observers) became one of the most important genres in Russian pop culture. Recordings of rap battles and videos of new rap songs receive millions of views on YouTube within a month or two. At the same time, Russian rap became more and more saturated with images of violence and rhetorics of success and personal domination; nevertheless, countercurrents such as, primarily, female rap and political satire rap, can also easily be discovered. This paper presents a social-theoretical interpretation of these transformations. The main argument is as follows: Russian society in the 2010s entered a state of covert anomie. The combination of increasing social stagnation and persistent openness to Western pop culture produced an unpredictable effect: the emergence of a “hybrid” subaltern in Russian society – a “mask” of a subaltern, involved in perseverating the reproduction of performances expressing revolt. However, this revolt is mocking and self-ironical and not intended to bring about any social change. This scenario of a “mock fight” charged with images of compensatory violence is the most popular type of narration in Russian rap, but it is not the only type: it is increasingly being “ousted” by politically charged rap, which presents the state as a main actor of violence and psychological pressure.

Keywords: glocalization, postcolonial theory, Russian rap, Russian Hip-Hop, Female rap, Representations of violence